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Venous Insufficiency - use recumbent exercise bike to raise legs?

Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Nov 19, 2022 | Replies (7)
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@colleenyoung

@chasmayhear, good question. Allow me to bring in fellow members to this discussion like @palmsprings59 @stulerner @mzhp1988 @baxtersmom @upartist @prairiesmoke @zenk.

People with chronic venous insufficiency are often encouraged to add exercise to their routine to improve blood flow in the legs. Venous insufficiency, which is caused by damage or dysfunction in one or more of your deeper leg veins, results in blood pooling in place rather than returning to the heart. In most cases, regular exercise, specifically bicycling can benefit venous insufficiency. See this article: https://nyulangone.org/conditions/chronic-venous-insufficiency-in-adults/treatments/lifestyle-changes-for-chronic-venous-insufficiency

I didn't find any information that specifically recommends recumbent cycling over sitting bicycles. I imagine that main point is to encourage blood flow. I get your line of thinking however. Having the legs higher to encourage blood flow back to the heart, right?

Would you be using a stationary exercise bike or a recumbent bike on the road?

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Replies to "@chasmayhear, good question. Allow me to bring in fellow members to this discussion like @palmsprings59 @stulerner..."
chasmayhear | @chasmayhear | Feb 14, 2022

I want the legs higher on a recumbent exercise bike to increase the flow of blood back to my heart. I don't understand blood flow while pedaling. Is there any problem with a recumbent bike?

I have an indoor exercise bike, an old Schwinn model.

I have severe asthma and live in the Bay Area of California. I intend to now walk everyday that the air quality is good. But here there are many days of the year where the air quality is not good and we also have wildfire smoke, sometimes for weeks. Indoors, HEPAs are doing a wonderful job on the particulate air quality and also would very effectively filter to reduce any Covid exposures.

Now, the most disturbing thing about venous insufficiency is that, when sitting on the couch, I am noticing a feeling in my legs. If I place my legs on a hassock or higher chair, I immediately feel relief in my legs. I am very concerned that this might be a permanent condition in the future.

I want to do what I can with exercise, elevation and elastic, the "3 E's" as a UC Davis vascular website says. There have been some improvements since I have been walking more, raising my legs and just started using an elastic stocking between the ankle and knee of my right leg.

The instruction for the elastic tube (Tubigrip) said to pull it on and then turn it back to double it. That gave me several small purple bruises, so I stopped. When I put the elastic tube back on in a single layer, it did not produce any small purple bruises. ?

It seems as if I should start with sonagram imaging to see how my veins are working. ?

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